The more we learn a foreign language,
the more we develop our memory, train our brain and accumulate the skill of
foreign words memorization. At least, so the theory says. But in practice, who
among us wasn’t tormented by foreign verbs grind, and then not disappointed by
noting that we had learnt at least half of all? What to do if our memory
doesn’t grow as fast as we would like? How to improve our skill to learn foreign words?
The answer is to help ourselves and our memory to learn material necessary. Fortunately, you do not have to invent your own ways. There are many techniques that allow us to facilitate the work of memorizing words. One of these techniques is the city of words.
The answer is to help ourselves and our memory to learn material necessary. Fortunately, you do not have to invent your own ways. There are many techniques that allow us to facilitate the work of memorizing words. One of these techniques is the city of words.
The purpose of the method is to create strong associative links with the words you learn. Indeed, the absence of such links is the reason that words are remembered with such difficulty. As long as they are just a collection of sounds for you, you continue to forget them.
Thus, our task is to link words with the associations – it’s a very useful to learn foreign words. To do this, imagine a city that you know well. Imagine its districts, streets, shops and houses. Now let your words settle in this city.
In fact, this method is so simple that it is difficult to give a name for it. Indeed, most of words that are used in a language are connected with reality in one way or another, and most used words are those that refer to objects that we see every day.
Link all the adjectives you learn with a city park. Find a vivid image for each word to visualize the image when you learn this word. A lot of adjectives, such as green, sunny, bright, fragrant, delicious and so on can be easily associated with any object in the park.
Settle the verbs in the sports center of your city. Now such words as run, jump, lift, swim and so on find their places, as well as sounds, smells and senses. Finally, this is our goal – in this way the words cease to be a set of sounds and become words, and we learn foreign words faster and much better.
If in the language you learn the words are divided by genders, mentally break the city into zones of male and female (and perhaps neutral) gender. This is the home only for "female" words, and that is - only for "male" ones. Think of how to differ such zones.
Eventually your city will grow and you'll be surprised how many words you can remember. And then, you may begin to build a
